India 'carefully studying' South China Sea verdict

NEW DELHI: India is "carefully studying" the verdict by a

UN-backed tribunal

which on Tuesday ruled that China has no legal basis to claim "historic rights" to islands in South China Sea

"India has noted the Award of the Arbitral Tribunal constituted under Annex VII of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in the matter concerning the Republic of the

Philippines

and the Peoples Republic of China and is studying it carefully," external affairs ministry said in a statement here.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration said in a statement that there was no legal basis for China to claim historic rights within the sea areas falling within the 'nine-dash line'.

Ruling out against China in a bitter row over territorial claims in South China Sea, the Permanent Court of Arbitration "concluded that there was no legal basis for China to claim historic rights within the sea areas falling within the 'nine-dash line'."

Asserting that it "does not accept and does not recognise" the ruling, China rejected the verdict as "null and void".

China asserts sovereignty over almost all of the strategically vital waters in the face of rival claims from its Southeast Asian neighbours.

Manila had lodged the suit against Beijing in 2013, saying that after 17 years of negotiations it had exhausted all political and diplomatic avenues.